Victoria-area authors up for BC Book prizes

Twelve authors from Greater Victoria are nominated for 2012 Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prizes. Books written by the authors have made the shortlist in all seven categories from children’s literature to adult fiction.

Colwood novelist Esi Edugyan’s book, Half-Blood Blues, about jazz musicians in the months leading up to the Second World War is nominated for the Ethel Wilson Prize for fiction. The book has already won the Giller Prize and is nominated for three other prestigious prizes, including the Man Booker. Her husband, Steven Price, is nominated in the same category for Into That Darkness.

Victoria-based food magazine editor Gary Hynes is nominated for the Bill Duthie Booksellers Choice award for Island Wineries of British Columbia, as is Robert Wiersema for Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen.

In poetry, North Saanich resident Patrick Lane is nominated for his Collected Poems, as is poet Susan McCaslin for Demeter Goes Skydiving.

Former Oak Bay resident now living on Thetis Island Gary Geddes is nominated for his non-fiction book, Drink the Bitter Root. Salt Spring Island author Sheryl Salloum is one of five authors vying for the Roderick Haig Regional Prize for her book, The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton. Victoria author Mike Deas’ illustrated children’s book, Dalen&Gole: Scandal in Port Angus, published by Victoria’s Orca Publishers, is up for a children’s literature prize.

Also published by Orca is Karen Rivers’ What is Real, nominated in best non-illustrated children’s book. Victoria author Caitlyn Vernon’s book about the Great Bear Rainforest is also shortlisted in that category.